Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Tritium is found in all living organisms, in the form of tritiated water. The amount of tritium in the environment has increased since the beginning of the ‘anthropocene’, which is defined as about 1946. Tritium can affect our health as water is in every single cell of our bodies and there is evidence that it can bioaccumulate up the food chain. It is also known to be present in higher concentrations in a fetus as opposed to the mother carrying the fetus and women concentrate tritium more than men. The bottom line is that exactly how much tritium affects our health and the health of all living organisms is not clearly known, but as it especially concentrates in fetuses, there is much concern.

Ordinary hydrogen contains a single proton and is not radioactive. Deuterium, the second isotope of hydrogen, contains one proton and one neutron, is found in “heavy water” and is not radioactive. Tritium, the third isotope contains three particles, one proton and two neutrons, and is radioactive with a half life of 12.3 years. When tritium decays, it releases a particle called a ‘weak beta’ particle which means the particle cannot penetrate intact skin. However, if inhaled or ingested, this decay particle can cause significant local damage to a cell’s DNA.

Rarely found in nature, tritium in trace amounts is the result of cosmic rays interacting with gases in the atmosphere. However, the lion’s share of tritium is human made and arises from the operation of nuclear power plants, as well as facilities which were dedicated to make tritium. Tritium is necessary as a component of most American made nuclear weapons and since it decays at 5.5% per year, it needs to be replenished to keep the weapons operational. In civilian usage, tritium can be found in self luminescent signs, such as exit signs in public buildings or stop signs.

Canada’s CANDU reactors produce a lot of tritium, which is reflected in Canada’s permissible dose in drinking water of 7,000 Bq per litre. USA’s permissible dose is 740 Bq/litre and Europe’s is 100 Bq/litre. It must be remembered that a “permissible” dose is not necessarily a “safe” dose.

CANDU reactors produce a lot of tritium because of using heavy water, which then becomes contaminated with radioactive tritium during normal operations. The nuclear industry has ideas of salvaging this tritium at Chalk River and selling it to the American military.

Tritium released by nuclear plants has become an unresolved issue. After the Fukishima disaster, tritiated water has been accumulating from its crippled nuclear power plants. As separating water from tritiated water is extremely difficult to do and as they have run out of space for storage tanks, the IAEA has permitted the owners to dump this radioactively contaminated water into the ocean.  This is regarded as environmentally unsound and is a politically charged decision.

An in-depth analysis of tritium can be found in this book: “Exploring Tritium Dangers” by Arjun Makhijani.

Gordon Edwards has written a lot on tritium. See: https://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html and https://www.ccnr.org/tritium_2.html#scoha